Education and Awareness

St. Mary’s offers a variety of programs and initiatives to educate our community and raise awareness of Title IX and sexual misconduct issues.

Ongoing Training

New students are required to attend the in-person “Title IX and Your Rights” training session. In addition, first-year, junior, and new transfer students are required to complete an ongoing training requirement designed to continue our campus-wide conversation about our community and sexual misconduct. Students must do one of the following:

Complete an online module on bystander intervention and sexual respect from our training partner, Get Inclusive

Attend an in-person training session on “Bringing in the Bystander” or “You are the Investigator”

Contact Title IX Coordinator Michael Dunn if a student wishes to be excused from the training requirement due to personal concerns or experiences

Raising Awareness

St. Mary’s offers many awareness programs around Title IX and issues of sexual violence, sexual harassment, and relationship violence, including:

A CALL TO MEN: The national violence prevention organization hosted workshops to address the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence in society and on college campuses, and how men can work together to prevent it. This programming was made possible thanks to a grant from the Center for Injury and Sexual Assault Prevention at the Maryland Department of Health. The funding came from the Maryland Rape and Sexual Assault Prevention College Initiative, which seeks to enhance campus-based sexual violence prevention activities.

Fear 2 Freedom Celebration Event: Participants are empowered to raise awareness and make a positive impact by assembling aftercare kits for survivors of sexual violence.

Other campus programs include Take Back the Night, the Clothesline Project, and RAINN Day.

Bystander Intervention

We apply the “Bringing in the Bystander” model of bystander intervention (“Bringing in the Bystander” is a registered trademark of the University of New Hampshire). This evidence-based approach is designed to help participants understand the concept of bystander intervention, identify a continuum of inappropriate behavior, develop empathy for those who have experienced sexual violence, and develop skills to intervene as a bystander.